Militant group claims responsibility for killing two hostages
The victims are an Italian Iraqi businessman and a Turkish man. Two kidnapped Indonesian women have been released
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) - A militant group claimed Monday to have shot and killed two hostages, one Turkish and the other an Iraqi who was a longtime resident in Italy, the Arab news network Al-Jazeera reported. The claim could not immediately be verified.
The station said it had received video footage from a group calling itself the Salafist Brigades of Abu Bakr Al-Sidiq accusing the two men of being spies. A segment broadcast on the network showed four armed militants dressed in black standing behind two kneeling men.
Al-Jazeera identified the Iraqi as Anwar Wali but did not give the Turkish man's name. Other agencies identified the Turkish man as Yalmaz Dabia. Before the execution the two prisoners "confessed" their crimes saying they were in Iraq to spy for Israele and for Turkey.
Wali's brother Emad said the Italian Foreign Ministry had informed the family about the killing but did not provide any details about when he was killed or how Italian officials had confirmed the slaying.
The Iraqi, whose full name is Ajad Anwar Wali, was kidnapped at the end of August from his Baghdad office. He had lived in northern Italy, in Castelfranco Veneto, since the early 1980s and was married to an Italian woman. According to his brother, Wali had formally applied for Italian citizenship and the request had been pending. The businessman worked for a furniture company, and last week an Italian business association of wood furniture makers appealed to the Italian government to work for his release.
The appeal came on the heels of the release Sept. 28 of two Italian women who were kidnapped in Baghdad, where they had been working as volunteer aid workers.
In another development today unidentified militants released two kidnapped Indonesian women who were working as maid in Iraq. They were handed over to the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Baghdad.
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